Friday, March 31, 2006

March

31 March, 2006

I became a member of Orkut.com. I was sent an invitation by a great friend of mine, and because he is such a good friend, I actually put in a profile and checked out the community. Never realized so many people I knew were also on the community. Urge you to check it out.

I teach English as a volunteer in an Adult Literacy campaign. I meet the most diverse bunch of people there - Latin Americans. African-Americans, Caribbean, Taiwanese, fellow Indians and Egyptians. You realize then the difficulties of being a tutor. How does one explain what 'by' means to an adult who doesn't speak a word of any language that you speak? He/She probably knows a smattering of English and I find my creativity being put to its toughest test ever for 2 hours every thursday evening!! However, when comprehension dawns and they actually speak a grammatically correct sentence, the joy of having helped them do it is almost undescribable. It is like finding a million dollar winning lottery ticket just after the credit card bills come in!

Have a lovely weekend!!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

First steps...

Salaam Namaste! So here it is.. my own blog space.. happy b'day to me for starting a blog finally! What can you say about a twenty-six-year-old girl who started blogging? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved fiction and food, travelling, and writing?

Okay, that was not a great rip off! But I like to think of Love Story as one of the most memorable books I've read. I read it when I was about 15. Stole it secretly from my mother's stash of books. Covered it with newspaper(see reading romance would give u a popularity rating less than President Bush!) Read it late at night tucked within my Social Studies CBSE History textbook.

The books is a simple Hindi movie formula story: Rich boy meets Poor girl. (Oliver and Jenny) Boy learns a lot from girl. Girl is bubby, principled and intelligent. We understand boy is fun loving and intelligent and principled too, and rich! They fall in love. Get married and sadly enough, girl dies. I know its sad. Maybe a li'l painful. She teaches him that 'Love means never having to say sorry' (I think on page 87!) And stored it away in our heads to be used with our partner (who we hoped would be exactly like Oliver) And believed in those words too. A lot.And dreamt a million dreams while reading the book. And cried like crazy at the ending.

Now at 26, I think the appeal of the books is precisely that. Youth. Dreams. Crazy love. Belief in love at first sight. Violins and Roses. And that love and fresh air are all that you need. If one turns 21 and then reads the book, I don't think it strikes you as one of the greatest books you read. I guess by 21 you grow up, become a li'l independent, perhaps a li'l cynical and realize that the rose tinted glasses are actually brown. And woe betide you if you watch the movie without reading the book. You'd never read it then I guess. The movie doesn't do much justice to the poetry and music of the book.

If you haven't read the book, I urge you to read it. Think of it as one of the greatest stories of the Vietnam war era. Read it for the story. For the romance to seep in a little bit."True love never has a happy ending, that is because true love never has an ending" You may even believe in it for a moment!

Cheerz!